If you were watching the final day of the Presidents Cup—or any day, for that matter—you probably don't need to see any stats to know that putting is not Corey Conners' strength. However, it was particularly bad at Medinah on Sunday as the Canadian lost the first four holes of his match with Justin Thomas before losing 5-and-3. Here was a sampling:

Anyway, as of late Sunday afternoon, Data Golf had Conners at an insanely bad -4.62 strokes gained: putting, a full THREE shots worse than anyone else on the greens. Yikes.

As insufferable as athletes have made this saying, Scottie Scheffler likes to "keep the main thing the main thing." The main thing being golf. He doesn't really want to talk about much else. Not LIV, not politics and certainly not the decision, whether it was his or U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker's, to sit out Saturday afternoon's foursomes session at the Presidents Cup. The thing Scheffler doesn't understand, of course, is that golf fans were very puzzled by that move, and wanted to know more about what went into it. Banks was doing her job asking Scheffler about it on Sunday, but the World No. 1 was irked by the timing of it. He had just won his singles match against Nico Echavarria, earning the Americans another huge point:

Ok then!

Both the question, and the response, are perfectly fair. We're sure this won't become an oddly polarizing moment on the internet or anything ... 

There are a lot of opinions out there about President Donald Trump spending his weekend jetting between Tennessee-Texas and the Presidents Cup with a war rumbling on in the Middle East and gas prices continuing to punish American consumers. You probably have one and lord knows I do, BUT sometimes you have to call a spade a spade, and this spade was pretty dang cool.

AF1 also buzzed the tower at Neyland Stadium on Saturday, but it wasn't enough to inspire the Volunteers to an upset of No. 1 Texas. American Presidents Cup fans will hope second time's a charm at Medinah, otherwise it will be a long afternoon for the stars n' stripes, who currently trail the Internationals 10.5 to 7.5 after three days of play.

After a report that Trump requested to speak for 15 minutes at the Presidents Cup, the 45th and 47th commander-in-chief spoke for less than a minute, noting that while PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp asked him to make a speech, he’d rather just watch golf. There was a small crack at the “fake news media” reporting he would be received poorly after cheers to his arrival; otherwise, nothing inflammatory from Trump. On Medinah Road near the course, dozens of pro- and anti-Trump demonstrators took over separate corners, waving flags and signs. He is expected to stay on property and award the winners the trophy later today.

But he didn't need it to be, the highest ranked golfer in the field (fourth in the world) carrying a three-shot lead entering the final round. So a closing 70 at Le Golf National, with a bogey on the 18th hole (just his second of the week), secured him his 11th DP World Tour title by those same three shots over Angel Hidalgo. Fitzpatrick displayed a fantastic short game all week, helping him record 20 birdies and an eagle to shoot rounds of 65-64-65 before Sunday. The 32-year-old is now tied for sixth among Englishman with the most DP World Tour wins. Meanwhile, he has one more person to celebrate the triumph with than his previous victories, this is his first win since he and his wife Katherine welcomed their first child, son Jack, earlier this month.

Can the U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker find some sort of confidence and help his team find some late magic to make a comeback from its 10½-7½ deficit? Will the pressure of breaking a 10-match winless streak finally bubble up for International captain Geoff Ogilvy and his squad? It promises to be an interesting afternoon at Medinah, but there’s one stat that I can’t keep thinking about as I consider which way I think things will play out. During Saturday’s double session, the American led 91 holes in the eight matches, while the Internationals led in just 15. And yet, the Americans only managed to trim the Internationals lead by one point from the start of the day to the finish. Closing out matches will be critical if the Americans are to turn things around, but so far this week (and especially on Saturday), they’ve shown no signs of having that gear.

Ian Poulter made a birdie to help cap a comeback win with Rory McIlroy to close out Saturday afternoon and keep Europe’s deficit to just four points. In hindsight, it was a critical point as Europe pulled off the incredible rally on Sunday. Fast forward to this Saturday afternoon at Medinah, and we might be remembering Corey Conners’ clutch putt on the 18th hole to secure a comeback victory with Nick Taylor in a similar fashion. Only this time it was to keep the Internationals’ lead to 3 points, 10½-7½, rather than let the Americans cut it to 2 points and feel a little less pressure about the task at hand on Sunday.

We interrupt our Presidents Cup coverage to let you know that Lauren Coughlin put together one of the most perfect nine-hole stretches in golf history. Starting on the back nine in the second round of the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, Coughlin birdied every (!) hole before making the turn in 26 (!) shots. 

Coughlin, who finally cooled off with a par on No. 10, tied the LPGA record with her sizzling streak, matching Amy Yang in 2015 and Beth Daniel in 1999. The PGA Tour record for consecutive birdies also happens to be nine, a mark first set by Mark Calcavecchia in 2009 and matched by Kevin Chappell in 2019. 

It’s just golf, you might say. A guy can’t play two rounds in a day?

Well, of course they can. But fatigue can manifest in ways you might not expect. A few years ago I noted how a study by the French Institute of Health and Research about strenuous cognitive thinking can apply to golf. Put simply, the study revealed the more hard decisions you face in a given task, the more likely you are to make a bad decision by the end. In other words, if a golfer is grinding through the first three rounds of an intense team competition, the they are more susceptible to doing something stupid in the fourth round. Or framed another way, if you need Scottie Scheffler to be at his best on what is likely to be a tense Sunday, an afternoon off is not a terrible idea.

Indeed, just when you thought you've seen it all as a golf fan, this happened Saturday at Medinah's second hole during the afternoon foursomes session. We've seen how the close OB fence has come into play already, but this was crazy as Corey Conners' approach sailed over that fence only to be kicked back onto the green by a spectator, who we're assuming is rooting for the Internationals. Have a look:

HOWEVER, logic prevailed as it was (correctly) determined that this was done intentionally, a no-no under the Rules of Golf. As a result, rules officials deemed that the ball should be place where it would have wound up, which was OB. After taking the stroke-and-distance penalty, Conners' teammate Nick Taylor had to re-hit from the same spot and the team lost the hole. 

How about when every putt seems to go in? The third match among Saturday’s fourball at Medinah featured some predictable bombs by Canadian Nick Taylor on the greens. But the excitement among Americans fans is how the home team finally found somebody to match him. Cup rookie Chris Gotterup—spurned by Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley a year ago—went out of his mind with the flatstick on the back nine in a tight match playing alongside Cam Young against Taylor and Corey Conners.

Sparked by Young shooting five under, including concessions, over the first six holes, the Americans never trailed but were still only 2 up when Taylor did his stuff and drained a 50-footer for birdie at the 14th. It looked like the boost the Internationals needed, but then Gotterup topped him with a 50-footer of his own that produced a huge roar. On the very next hole, Gotterup came through again by making a 34-foot birdie to put the Americans 3 up, and after Taylor answered by making a 28-footer at 16, Gotterup rolled in yet another one, from 33 feet, to halve the hole and close out the match.

Clearly, a Presidents Cup putting duel to be remembered, and captain Brandt Snedeker, hoping to keep a hot hand, sent the pair out again in the afternoon foursomes. The original movie was going to be hard to top.

After the first three sessions at Medinah No. 3, the American team has won on the par 3s just four times. Conversely, the International side has won the one-shot holes 20 times. In particular, the play on the par-3 16th has been a big deal. The International team won that hole three times on Saturday morning, the Americans just once (a big one, though, as Sam Burns birdie helped he and Scottie Scheffler claim a critical win in their fourball match.) In the last eight matches that reach the hole, the Internationals have won it five times, a trend the Americans are going to need to buck if they’re to win.

Most notable: World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is sitting out the session. On paper, you’d think you’d want the best player in the world playing as much as possible, but giving him some rest for Sunday singles is understandable given his up-and-down play this week. Justin Thomas is also on the sidelines, which given his play on Saturday morning feels right. What might have people scratching heads is the return of Russell Henley and Jacob Bridgeman in foursomes. They are the two shortest hitters on the American team, leaving themselves at a disadvantage off the tee. And they didn’t look all that great in a 3-and-2 loss in the format to Sungjae Im and Hideki Matsuyama in Friday foursomes.